Speech analytics: conversation timing and adjustment

ABSTRACT

Agents of a contact center often encounter conversational delays when speaking with a customer. These delays may be introduced by transmission delays, which include the distance between the agent and the customer, and processing delays, such as those introduced by systems and processes within a contact center. By providing an agent with information based on the amount of the delay, the agent can be prompted to overtalk the customer by a target amount. As a result, the customer may experience a more natural conversation with the agent. Furthermore, if a customer prefers more or less of a delay, such as based on their cultural norms, the delay may be modified to account for those cultural norms and better accommodate the conversational preferences of a diverse customer base.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is generally directed toward speech analytics andspecifically toward speech analytics within a contact centerenvironment.

BACKGROUND

Spoken communication between individuals is a fundamental aspect ofhuman nature. Delays, pauses, interruptions, overtalking, etc. mayconvey, intentionally or unintentionally, a meaning beyond the wordsthemselves. One significant problem with calls, especially cell phone,voice over IP, or voice/video conference calls, is that there can beserious transmission and codec encoding/decoding delays, whichsubstantially affect interactions. There are also cultural aspects toconversations that should be considered. For example, a longer pause inJapanese might be indicative of respect. The manner in which peopleinteract and factors that impact conversation are large concerns forcontact centers.

Anyone that has made a call between two cell phones in the same room haslikely experienced this large delay firsthand—speaking into one phone,the voice is reproduced on the second handset over a second later.

On the other hand, the delay on a landline PSTN link or VoIP equivalentcan be quite low. A G.711 codec has negligible delay other than theframe and packetization delay of 10 or 20 ms. Transmission may add 60-80ms, and so the end to end delay will typically be under 150 ms.

A customer's perception of the agent and/or the company may be adverselyaffected based on the conversation delay being inappropriate. On theother hand, a customer may be well-aware of the delay and may think acontact center agent is quite responsive and helpful; however, a posthoc analysis of a highly-delayed call may result in the contact centeragent being given a poor grade even though the agent was doingeverything within their power to provide the appropriate amount ofcustomer service.

SUMMARY

It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that theembodiments presented herein were contemplated. Certain embodimentsdisclosed estimate the delay experienced in a customer/client side of aconversation and provides means to account and compensate for the delay.Other embodiments include conversation analytics that account for delayin assessing a contact center agent's performance.

For communications with high delay, the agent might be perceived asbeing “attentive” if they begin speaking as they hear the customercomplete a sentence—because the agent is hearing the customer aftersignificant delay, and the path from the agent to the customer will addmore delay. If the agent speaks before they hear the customer's last bitof speech, the customer may then perceive the conversation as proceedingin a normal pace.

On the other hand, if the agent then does the same “overtalk response”to a customer on a low delay circuit, the agent will be speaking overthe customer, and the customer will likely perceive this as the agentbeing pushy, rude, or not caring about the customer's statement.

Furthermore, even if the agent correctly anticipates the delay for everycall, one must remember that the call is likely recorded for qualitymonitoring purposes. On playback, it will appear that for some calls,the agent is impolite and overtalking the customer, but polite on othercalls. If the agent is not coached, then on low delay calls the customerwill appear to be happy, while on high delay calls the customer may bedispleased or even complain with statements, such as, “are youlistening” or “pay attention” due to long pauses betweeninteractions—especially if the pause is a combination of transmissiondelays and delays in the agent understanding a statement, interactingwith a computer screen, etc.

A system is disclosed that may coach the agent on how best to talk withthe detected summation of delays. The estimated delay on the client sidewould be added to measured network, codec, and other delays as anaggregate number to give an agent an estimate of how quickly to respondor how much overtalk should be employed to effectively balance theconversation based on conversation analytics. Similarly, automatedagents, such as interactive voice response (“IVR”) systems may similarlybe given an overtalk amount in order to facilitate a more appropriatedelay as observed by the customer. In certain other embodiments, atransmission delay is inserted by the recording equipment, which isoften co-located with the agent or otherwise records substantially theagent's perspective of the call, into the recorded call such that thatrecording better reflects the customer's experience with the call.Subsequent conversational analysis processes may then properly take intoaccount the end-to-end delay and its effect on the perceived experienceof the customer when analyzing the conversation.

Conversational Analysis (“CA”) is a method commonly used to study bothverbal and non-verbal interactions, covering both casual conversationsand task-oriented exchanges. CA examines the social organization ofconversations, typically through the use of recordings andtranscriptions. CA typically employs sampling techniques and codingprocedures, testing, and statistics. CA is designed to provide aspecific kind of insight into the way people interact.

In today's telephony systems, especially when the media includes video,delays range from small and imperceptible to big and call impacting.Transmission delays may be measured/estimated using ping or traceroute.Processing delays, such as for codecs can also be factored in (e.g.,G.729, 10-15 ms; G.711, 125 ms; Facetime, 40-50 ms delay).

Common delay specifications may include (in milliseconds):

-   -   0-150: Acceptable for most user applications;    -   150-400: Acceptable provided that administrators are aware of        the transmission time and the impact it has on the transmission        quality of user applications; and    -   Above 400: Unacceptable for general network planning purposes.

A customer may sit on a call to a contact center with significant delayfor 0.5 to 0.75 seconds. During this time, the customer may be wonderingif an agent is still listening, if the call is still up, etc. The delaymay cause overlap, customer dissatisfaction, abandonment, and otherwoes. Overlap is where an agent and a customer either speak at the sametime or both wait for the other to speak, both of which are undesirablein the contact center.

Certain embodiments described provide for a system that is able toprovide feedback on the delay to an analyzer using a data channel. Thedata channel may be used to detect when someone is talking and/or donetalking. The CA would be run from the perspective of the customer,rather than the agent. The aggregated information could be used to coachan analytics system, an automated system, or an agent to adjust aconversation based on the delay.

A display may be provided to the agent to provide suggestions forovertalk and/or adjustments for talking to the customer to soundappropriately responsive.

In one embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: accessing atransmission delay value of a communications system, the transmissiondelay value indicating the transmission delay of at least a voiceportion of an intended conversation between an agent and a customer;accessing a processing delay value of the communications system, theprocessing delay value indicating the processing delay of at least avoice portion of the intended conversation; calculating an overtalkamount as the sum of the transmission delay value and the processingdelay value; and providing an indicator of the overtalk amount, at leastone of, the agent and a call analytics engine.

In other embodiment, a system is disclosed, comprising: a processor; anagent device; an agent display; a network interface operable tofacilitate communication between the agent device and a customer device;and wherein the processor is operable to: access a transmission delayvalue of a communications system, the transmission delay valueindicating the transmission delay of at least a voice portion of anintended conversation between an agent and a customer; access aprocessing delay value of the communications system, the processingdelay value indicating the processing delay of at least a voice portionof the intended conversation; calculate an overtalk amount as the sum ofthe transmission delay value and the processing delay value; and causean indicator of the overtalk amount to be provided to, at least one of,the agent and a call analytics engine.

In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable medium isdisclosed with instructions thereon that when read by the computer causethe computer to perform: accessing a transmission delay value of acommunications system, the transmission delay value indicating thetransmission delay of at least a voice portion of an intendedconversation between an agent and a customer; accessing a processingdelay value of the communications system, the processing delay valueindicating the processing delay of at least a voice portion of theintended conversation; calculating an overtalk amount as the sum of thetransmission delay value and the processing delay value; and providingan indicator of the overtalk amount, at least one of, the agent and acall analytics engine.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C,” “at leastone of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage that participates in providing instructions to aprocessor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, includingbut not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmissionmedia. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic oroptical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as mainmemory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, afloppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any othermagnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state mediumlike a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable mediais configured as a database, it is to be understood that the databasemay be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical,object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognizedequivalents and successor media, in which the software implementationsof the present disclosure are stored.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosureis described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat other aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a communication system in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts a communication system in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a dialog window in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a call analysis system in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict one conversation segment between an agent and acustomer without overtalk correction;

FIGS. 6A and 6B depicts a second conversation segment between an agentand a customer using overtalk correction in accordance with at leastsome embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 depicts a process in accordance with at least some embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intendedto limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims.Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the artwith an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It beingunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

The identification in the description of element numbers without asubelement identifier, when a subelement identifiers exist in thefigures, when used in the plural, is intended to reference any two ormore elements with a like element number. A similar usage in thesingular, is intended to reference any one of the elements with the likeelement number. Any explicit usage to the contrary or furtherqualification shall take precedence.

The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure will also bedescribed in relation to analysis software, modules, and associatedanalysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentdisclosure, the following description omits well-known structures,components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, and arewell known, or are otherwise summarized.

For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It should beappreciated, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced in avariety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of communication system 100 inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication system 100 may be a distributed system and, in someembodiments, comprises a communication network 104 connecting one ormore communication devices 108 to a work assignment mechanism 116, whichmay be owned and operated by an enterprise administering a contactcenter in which a plurality of resources 112 are distributed to handleincoming work items (in the form of contacts) from customercommunication devices 108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. Thecommunication network 104 may include wired and/or wirelesscommunication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) network, a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, a cellular network, andany other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known inthe art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communicationnetwork 104 need not be limited to any one network type, and instead maybe comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. Asone example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized toincrease the efficiency of a grid-based contact center. Examples of agrid-based contact center are more fully described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/469,523 to Steiner, the entire contents of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communicationnetwork 104 may comprise a number of different communication media suchas coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas fortransmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof.

The communication devices 108 may correspond to customer communicationdevices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device 108 toinitiate a work item, which is generally a request for a processingresource 112. Illustrative work items include, but are not limited to, acontact directed toward and received at a contact center, a web pagerequest directed toward and received at a server farm (e.g., collectionof servers), a media request, an application request (e.g., a requestfor application resources location on a remote application server, suchas a SIP application server), and the like. The work item may be in theform of a message or collection of messages transmitted over thecommunication network 104. For example, the work item may be transmittedas a telephone call, a packet or collection of packets (e.g., IP packetstransmitted over an IP network), an email message, an Instant Message,an SMS message, a fax, and combinations thereof. In some embodiments,the communication may not necessarily be directed at the work assignmentmechanism 116, but rather may be on some other server in thecommunication network 104 where it is harvested by the work assignmentmechanism 116, which generates a work item for the harvestedcommunication. An example of such a harvested communication includes asocial media communication that is harvested by the work assignmentmechanism 116 from a social media network or server. Exemplaryarchitectures for harvesting social media communications and generatingwork items based thereon are described in U.S. patent application Ser.Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942, and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 1010, Feb.17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010, respectively, each of which are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of thecommunication device 108 and the format of the communication. Inparticular, work items are logical representations within a contactcenter of work to be performed in connection with servicing acommunication received at the contact center (and more specifically thework assignment mechanism 116). The communication may be received andmaintained at the work assignment mechanism 116, a switch or serverconnected to the work assignment mechanism 116, or the like until aresource 112 is assigned to the work item representing thatcommunication at which point the work assignment mechanism 116 passesthe work item to a routing engine 132 to connect the communicationdevice 108 which initiated the communication with the assigned resource112.

Although the routing engine 132 is depicted as being separate from thework assignment mechanism 116, the routing engine 132 may beincorporated into the work assignment mechanism 116 or its functionalitymay be executed by the work assignment engine 120.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication devices 108 may comprise any type of knowncommunication equipment or collection of communication equipment.Examples of a suitable communication device 108 include, but are notlimited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof.In general each communication device 108 may be adapted to supportvideo, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communicationdevices 108 as well as the processing resources 112. The type of mediumused by the communication device 108 to communicate with othercommunication devices 108 or processing resources 112 may depend uponthe communication applications available on the communication device108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources 112via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism 116 androuting engine 132. The resources 112 can either be completely automatedresources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, processors,servers, or the like), human resources utilizing communication devices(e.g., human agents utilizing a computer, telephone, laptop, etc.), orany other resource known to be used in contact centers.

As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism 116 and resources 112may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center format.In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 may beadministered by multiple enterprises, each of which has their owndedicated resources 112 connected to the work assignment mechanism 116.

In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 comprises a workassignment engine 120 which enables the work assignment mechanism 116 tomake intelligent routing decisions for work items. In some embodiments,the work assignment engine 120 is configured to administer and make workassignment decisions in a queueless contact center, as is described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entire contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In other embodiments,the work assignment engine 120 may be configured to execute workassignment decisions in a traditional queue-based (or skill-based)contact center.

More specifically, the work assignment engine 120 comprises executablestrategies 124 that, when executed, enable the work assignment engine120 to determine which of the plurality of processing resources 112 isqualified and/or eligible to receive the work item and further determinewhich of the plurality of processing resources 112 is best suited tohandle the processing needs of the work item. In situations of work itemsurplus, the work assignment engine 120 can also make the oppositedetermination (i.e., determine optimal assignment of a work item to aresource). In some embodiments, the work assignment engine 120 isconfigured to achieve true one-to-one matching by utilizingbitmaps/tables and other data structures.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work assignment engine 120 may be configured to execute one orseveral executable strategies 124 to make work assignment decisions. Aswill be discussed in further detail herein, the work assignment engine120 may comprise a plurality of executable strategies 124, where one ormore of the executable strategies 124 include one or many tasks that areperformed by the work assignment engine 120 during execution of theexecutable strategy 124. The order or manner in which the tasks of astrategy 124 are executed by the work assignment engine 120 may bedefined by rules or policies, which may also be included in theexecutable strategy 124.

The work assignment engine 120 and its various components may reside inthe work assignment mechanism 116 or in a number of different servers orprocessing devices. In some embodiments, cloud-based computingarchitectures can be employed whereby one or more components of the workassignment mechanism 116 are made available in a cloud or network suchthat they can be shared resources among a plurality of different users.

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of communication system 200 in accordance with atleast some embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment,agent 202 is or will be engaged in a conversation with customer 206 viacommunication network 210. As mentioned above, certain well-knowncomponents are omitted for purposes of avoiding unnecessarycomplications to the figure. Agent 202 is, one embodiment of resource112 operable to receive work assignments from routing engine 132 andwork assignment mechanism 116. The work assignments may require agent202 to place or receive a call. Agent 202, utilizing communicationdevice 204, is or will be engaged in a conversation with customer 206utilizing customer device 208 which may be a voice call and/or a videocall with a voice portion. Agent device 204 and/or customer device 208may be one or more of POTS telephone, SIP endpoint, VoIP telephone,cellular telephone, video display/capture device, and/or othercommunication device operable to accommodate, at least, voicecommunication from agent 202. Similarly, communication network 210 maycomprise one or more of cellular network, wired data network, wirelessdata network, public switched telephone network, satellite links,Internet, and/or other communication conduit operable to enable agent202 utilizing agent device 204 to communicate with customer 206 usingcustomer device 208.

Communication network 210 comprises various components (not shown forclarity). Despite the great speeds in which the various components mayoperate, communication network 210 inevitably comprises processing delay212 and transmission delay 214. For clarity, only one of each type ofdelay is shown—in general there may be multiple delays of each typeoccurring in any order. In one embodiment, processing delay 212represents signal processing equipment, such as that maintained by acontact center to enable agent device 204 to connect to networks outsideof the contact center. For example, codecs to convert analog signalsinto packets for transport on digital networks, such as the Internet, isone example of processing delay 212. In another embodiment, transmissiondelay 214 comprises the delay introduced by distance and/or systems oncommunication network 210, which is generally outside of the control ofa contact center (e.g., telephone company central office hardware andsoftware). As mentioned, distance may be a significant portion oftransmission delay 214. If agent 202 and customer 206 are on oppositesides of the Earth, even signals traveling at the speed of lightintroduce a delay that is readily perceived by human participants. As aresult, real-time communication generally has at least some delay. Thetotal delay may range from unperceivable, to noticeable, and on tosignificant and disruptive. As a benefit of certain embodimentsdisclosed herein, agent 202 may be provided with a cue to overtalkcustomer 206 by an amount determined to provide customer 206 with a morenatural conversational experience.

In one embodiment, overtalk system 216 determines specific values ofprocessing delay 212 and/or transmission delay 214 and provides a cue,such as via agent display 220, to agent 202 on the degree of overtalkdesired for a particular customer 206. As the components causingprocessing delay 212 are generally accessible to a particular contactcenter, processing delay 212 may be determined by direct observation.Utilization of known or estimated values of components may also beutilized (e.g., published specifications for a particular component).Processing delay 212 may be substantially static and vary, or besuspected of varying, only upon the installation and/or removal ofcomponents and processes of a contact center. Certain variations mayoccur, such as during times of high contact center utilization,processing delay 212 may be greater than at times of low contact centerutilization. Accordingly, processing delay 212 may be determined on acall-by-call basis, periodic basis, or one-time basis in accord with thevariability of the processing delay.

In another embodiment, transmission delay 214 may be determined on acall-by-call basis to account for, in part, the geographic distancebetween customer 206 and agent 202. Delays introduced by known orsuspected hardware and/or software may also be utilized. Transmissiondelay 214 may be generalized such that determining transmission delay214 may occur less frequently than a call-by-call basis. For example,all customers (e.g., a plurality of customer 206) within a particularregion may be associated with the same transmission delay 214.Similarly, calls to the cellular telephone of customers may be subjectto an additional delay specific to all cellular calls or calls known toutilize a particular cellular network or technology may have a known ordetermined increment to the transmission delay based on land-linecommunications. Transmission delay 214 may vary based, at least in part,on the time of day, week, holiday, disaster, or other one-time orperiodic events.

In another embodiment, overtalk analysis engine 218 determines anovertalk amount comprised of processing delay 212 and/or transmissiondelay 214. In addition to the mathematical operation to determine theovertalk amount, certain key words or phrases spoken by customer 206 maybe indicative of too much or too little overtalk. For example, ifcustomer 206 routinely repeats the first sound or syllable (e.g., “I . .. I have another question”) that may be an indication that they arehearing agent 202 at a time when they believe it is their turn to speakand overtalk analysis engine 218 may decrease the value of the overtalkamount accordingly. In another example, if customer 206 says words,phrases, or what is believed or known to be a partial word or phraseassociated with determining if agent 202 is still engaged in the call(e.g., “H,” “Hello?” “Are,” “Are you . . . ,” etc.), overtalk analysisengine may then increase the overtalk amount.

In another embodiment, overtalk analysis engine 218 accesses at leastone record within cultural norms database 226. For example, if customer206 is known or suspected to be Japanese, where more delay betweenspeakers is a sign of respect and politeness, then overtalk analysisengine 218 accesses a record within cultural norms database 226associated with Japan and/or Japanese natives to retrieve acorresponding cultural delay. As a result, overtalk analysis engine 216may consider processing delay 212, transmission delay 214, and/or acultural delay to determine an overtalk amount. The cultural delay maybe result in an increase, decrease, or no chance in the overtalk amount,as compared to the delay determined from processing delay 212 and/ortransmission delay 214. For example if the overtalk amount, based onprocessing delay 212 and transmission delay 214, is 0.5 seconds, but thecultural norm for customer 206 indicates that 0.5 seconds isappropriate, then the net overtalk amount would be zero.

In another embodiment, overtalk analysis engine 218 causes an indicatorto display on agent terminal 220 indicating the overtalk amount and/ortheir current overtalk amount. This aspect of the disclosure will bediscussed more completely with respect to FIG. 3.

The performance of agent 202 may be analyzed in real time or at a latertime. If agent 202 is engaged in a call with non-trivial delays, arecording of such a call made substantially from the perspective ofagent 202, may incorrectly indicate agent 202 is interrupting or talkingover customer 206. Accordingly, in another embodiment, a delay isinserted agent's 202 channel to simulate the conversation from theperspective of customer 206. Overtalk analysis engine 218 may insert orcause the insertion of such a delay such that call recordings database222 records the call from the simulated perspective of customer 206.Alternatively, the delay may be inserted during, or prior to, playbackof a recording. As a result, call analytics engine 224 which may be ahuman and/or automated examination of a prior call, may be presentedwith and analyze the call from the perspective of customer 206. Callanalytics engine 224 may alternatively access a live feed of a call withthe appropriate delay of the overtalk amount inserted therein.

FIG. 3 shows a portion of agent display 220 displaying dialog window 300in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure.In one embodiment, dialog window 300 is operable to provide a visualdisplay of at least a target overtalk indicator to agent 202. It shouldbe appreciated that dialog window 300 represents one means to providevisual information to agent 202 and that embodiments providing audio ortactile cues may also be implemented without departing from theteachings herein.

In one embodiment, dialog window 300 includes text status 302, such asto instruct agent 202 to apply more overtalk. In another embodiment,thermometer-style display 304 provides a more detailed display of thecurrent and target overtalk amount. Showing a current graphical overtalkportion 306, an unutilized graphical overtalk portion 310, anddiscrepancy graphical overtalk portion 308. It should be noted thatother graphical, textual, audio, and/or tactile displays may be utilizedwithout departing from the teachings herein. In another embodiment,current indicator 314 shows a current overtalk amount 314 (e.g., 0.4seconds) and/or a target overtalk amount 312 (e.g., 0.6 seconds).

The determination of the current overtalk amount may be based on thelast communication exchange or an average or other mathematicaloperation of a number of communication exchanges. An average overtalkmay be determined for a particular conversation as one means ofproviding current indicator 314. In another embodiment, outlier high orlow observed overtalk values may be discarded, such as when agent 202has a legitimate reason to interrupt customer 206 (e.g., “Are you sureit was on the 14^(th)?” (customer 206 begins speaking) “Found it. It wason the 17^(th).”). Accordingly, an unusually high degree of overtalk maybe discarded from the current overtalk calculation. Similarly, longerpauses may be indicative of waiting for a system to retrieve informationor perform an operation or for agent 202 to ponder a particular issuesand, therefore, unusually long periods of pausing may similarly beexcluded from a current overtalk calculation.

FIG. 4 shows call analysis system 400 in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, overtalkanalysis engine 218 determines an overtalk value and provides theovertalk value to call playback system 402 to be maintained as delay404. Communication from agent channel 406 is then buffered or otherwisedelayed by delay 404 to simulate the call experience from theperspective of customer 206. Customer channel 408 and/or agent channel406 is then provided to call analytics engine 224 in real time orrecorded by call recordings database 222 to be made available to callanalytics engine 224 at a later time.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show a conversation segment between agent 202 andcustomer 206 without overtalk correction. Customer 206 speaks customerportions 502, 506 and agent 202 speaks agent portions 504, 508. Asillustrated with respect to FIG. 5A, agent 202 hears customer 206 speakcustomer portion 502, in its entirety, and then speaks agent portion504. Then, agent 202 is interrupted by customer 206 speaking customerportion 506. From the perspective of agent 202, customer portion 506appears to come unexpectedly as agent 202 is currently speaking Agent202 then continues with agent portion 508.

As illustrated with respect to FIG. 5B, customer 206 speaks customerportion 502 and fails to receive a reply during silence 510. Customer206, wondering if agent 202 is still there, then speaks 506, however, ascustomer 206 is speaking, customer 206 hears agent portion 504, andstops talking Silence 512 follows and customer 206 may again bewondering if agent 202 is still on the call, however, by pausingslightly longer, customer 206 then hears agent portion 508. The exchangeillustrated by FIGS. 5A and 5B may be functional but without overtalkcorrection, silences 510, 512 cause a clumsy and awkward exchange.Customer 206 may have an unsatisfactory experience and may even abandonthe call.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show a conversation segment between agent 202 andcustomer 206 using overtalk correction in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated with respect toFIG. 6A, customer 206 speaks customer portions 602, 606 and agent 202speaks agent portions 604, 608. Agent 202 is trained and/or prompted,such as by dialog window 300, to overtalk customer 206. Agent 202,determining that customer portion 602 is about to end, begins speakingcustomer portion 604 with overtalk amount 610. Agent 202 thenexperiences silence 612, which should be expected by agent 202. Agent202 then hears customer portion 606 and begins speaking agent portion208 with overtalk amount 614.

As illustrated with respect to FIG. 6B, the experience from theperspective of customer 206 is a more natural flow. Customer 206 speakscustomer portion 602, after a normal conversational delay hears agentportion 604, responds with customer portion 606 and, after anothernormal conversational delay, hears agent portion 608. In anotherembodiment, the normal conversational delay, may be a delay determinedwith respect to a cultural norm, as described more fully with respect toFIG. 2.

FIG. 7 shows process 700 in accordance with at least some embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In one embodiment, a processor, such as orcontrolled by or integral to overtalk analysis engine 218, determines atransmission delay value for a current or prospective call between agent202 and customer 206. Step 702 may be calculated or, for at least oneportion of the transmission delay, may be a retrieved stored value, suchas a typical delay encountered with the same customer 206 or with othercustomers within a similar geographic area as customer 206.

Step 704 accesses a processing delay for the call. Step 704 may access astored value, such as when equipment associated with supporting the callhas not changed and is the embodying system has a processing delay thatis substantially static. However, in other embodiments, step 704 maydetermine the processing delay on a call-by-call basis or for a numberof calls or other periodic basis. For example, all voice-only calls tocustomers may have one delay, however, all video calls may have anadditional delay representing video encoding/decoding and otheradditional processes. Similarly, calls utilizing POTS may have oneprocessing delay whereas VoIP calls may have another processing delay.Step 704 may determine a single value for all processing delays for acurrent or prospective call.

Optionally, step 706 may determine a cultural norm delay. This reflectsan assumed customer characteristic that customer 206 may prefer to havea certain length of a pause between speakers of a conversation. As aresult, the overtalk amount produced by step 708 may be increased ordecreased such that the end result is an appropriate cultural norm delayfor the particular customer 206. Step 710 then presents the targetovertalk amount to agent 202 to prompt agent 202 to overtalk customer206 the target value.

In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methodswere described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that inalternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different orderthan that described. It should also be appreciated that the methodsdescribed above may be performed by hardware components or may beembodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may beused to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purposeprocessor (GPU or CPU) or logic circuits programmed with theinstructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executableinstructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, suchas CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs,EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other typesof machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by acombination of hardware and software.

Specific details were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown inblock diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessarydetail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process whichis depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium.A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment mayrepresent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, asubroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination ofinstructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment maybe coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passingand/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described indetail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may beotherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claimsare intended to be construed to include such variations, except aslimited by the prior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: measuring, by a processor,a transmission delay value of a communications system, the transmissiondelay value indicating the transmission delay of at least a voiceportion of a conversation between communication devices of an agent anda customer; measuring, by the processor, a processing delay value of thecommunications system, the processing delay value indicating theprocessing delay of at least a voice portion of the conversation;calculating, by the processor, an overtalk amount as the sum of thetransmission delay value and the processing delay value; and providing,by the processor, in response to a signal from the processor, anindicator of the overtalk amount to at least one of the agent or a callanalytics engine.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating theovertalk amount further comprises adding to the overtalk amount a thirddelay value, the third delay value indicating a cultural norm forconversational delay.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:inserting, by the processor, a simulated delay of the overtalk amountinto the agent's portion of the conversation; and providing, by theprocessor, in response to a signal from the processor, a recording ofthe conversation, with the simulated delay, to a call analyzer.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein the call analyzer is a recording device. 5.The method of claim 3, further comprising: recording, by the processor,in response to a signal from the processor, the conversation from aperspective substantially equivalent to the agent's perspective; andwherein inserting the simulated delay and providing the recording areperformed during playback of the recording.
 6. A communication system,comprising: a processor; an agent device; an agent display; a networkinterface operable to facilitate communication between the agent deviceand a customer device; and wherein the processor programmed to: measurea transmission delay value of the communications system, thetransmission delay value indicating the transmission delay of at least avoice portion of a conversation between communication devices of anagent and a customer; measure a processing delay value of thecommunications system, the processing delay value indicating theprocessing delay of at least a voice portion of the conversation;calculate an overtalk amount as the sum of the transmission delay valueand the processing delay value; and cause an indicator of the overtalkamount to be provided to at least one of the agent display for displaythereon or a call analytics engine.
 7. The system of claim 6, furthercomprising: a database having stored therein a third delay value, thethird delay value indicating a cultural norm for conversational delay;and wherein the processor is further operable to calculate the overtalkamount by adding the third delay value thereto.
 8. The system of claim6, wherein the processor is further programmed to: insert a simulateddelay of the overtalk amount into the agent's portion of theconversation; and provide a recording of the conversation, with thesimulated delay, to a call analyzer.
 9. The system of claim 8, whereinthe processor is operable to provide the recording to a recordingdevice.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein: a recording device recordsthe conversation from a perspective substantially equivalent to that ofthe agent device; and wherein the processor is further operable toinsert the simulated delay into the recorded conversation and providethe recorded conversation during playback.
 11. A non-transitory computerreadable medium with instructions thereon that when executed by aprocessor cause the processor to: measure a transmission delay value ofa communications system, the transmission delay value indicating thetransmission delay of at least a voice portion of a conversation betweencommunication devices of an agent and a customer; measure a processingdelay value of the communications system, the processing delay valueindicating the processing delay of at least a voice portion of theconversation; calculate an overtalk amount as the sum of thetransmission delay value and the processing delay value; and provide anindicator of the overtalk amount to at least one of the agent or a callanalytics engine.
 12. The non-transitory medium of claim 11, wherein theinstructions to calculate the overtalk amount further comprisesinstructions that when executed causes the processor to add to theovertalk amount a third delay value, the third delay value indicating acultural norm for conversational delay.
 13. The non-transitory medium ofclaim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions thatwhen executed causes the processor to: insert a simulated delay of theovertalk amount into the agent's portion of the conversation; andprovide a recording the conversation, with the simulated delay, to acall analyzer.
 14. The non-transitory medium of claim 13, wherein theinstructions further comprise instructions that when executed causes theprocessor to: record the conversation from a perspective substantiallyequivalent to the agent's perspective; and wherein the instructions toinsert the simulated delay and providing the recording are performedduring the execution of the instructions to perform the playback of therecording.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the transmissiondelay value further comprises transmitting at least one of a ping or atraceroute and determining the measured transmission delay by using theat least one of the ping or the traceroute.
 16. The method of claim 1,wherein calculating the overtalk amount further comprises calculatingthe overtalk amount in accord with a spoken indicator associated withthe overtalk amount being too much or too little.
 17. The method ofclaim 1, wherein calculating the overtalk amount further comprisescalculating the overtalk amount in accord with a delay associated with aprior call.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the overtalkamount, further comprises, calculating the overtalk amount to include anestimated transmission delay.
 19. The method of claim 1, whereincalculating the overtalk amount, further comprises, calculating theovertalk amount to include an estimated number of transmissioncomponents and the delay associated therewith.
 20. The method of claim1, wherein calculating the overtalk amount, further comprises,calculating the overtalk amount to include a geographic distance betweenthe agent and the customer.